Stephen Hawking 'is like the Taliban to dismiss God over creation of Universe'

Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been compared to the Taliban over his controversial claim that God is not needed to explain the creation of the universe.

Baroness Greenfield, former head of the Royal Institution, said there was a 'smugness and complacency' in science when it claimed 'to have all the answers'.

In his provocative new book, The Grand Design, Professor Hawking had claimed that modern
physics left no room for a Creator - and that science could explain the
origins of the universe.

Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield has said that scientists, like Professor Hawking, are 'smug' to dismiss God

The best-selling author concludes:
'Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will
create itself from nothing.

'Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.

'It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper and set the universe going.'

But Lady Greenfield told the BBC's Today progreamme: 'Science can often suffer from a certain smugness and complacency. Michael Faraday, one of the greatest scientists, had a wonderful quote, he said: ‘There’s nothing quite as frightening as someone who knows they are right’

'What we need to preserve in science is a curiosity and an
open-mindedness rather than a complacency and a sort of arrogance where
we attack people who come at the big truths and the big questions albeit
using different strategies.'

The front cover of 'The Grand Design', published by Random House

Lady Greenfield also said she was uncomfortable with scientist talking about God.

She said: 'Of course they can make whatever comments they like but when they assume, rather in a Taliban-like way, that they have all the answers then I do feel uncomfortable. I think that doesn’t necessarily do science a service.'

Lady Greenfield later said that she 'admired Stephen Hawking greatly' and 'had no wish to compare him in particular to the Taliban'.

But she said: 'All science is provisional and therefore to claim to have the definitive answer to anything is a hardline view. It would be very great shame if young people think that to be a scientist you must be an atheist.'

Professor Hawking's book, which was co-written by American physicist Leonard Mlodinow and published on September 9, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have created out of chaos.

He cites the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun.

'That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.'

Prof Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe, writing in A Brief History Of Time in 1988: 'If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we should know the mind of God.'

An image from Hubble that shows the heart of the Milky Way taken in near infra-red light. Prof Hawking says that our existence is the result of physics, not a Supreme Being

He also leaves open the possibility of life on other planets and entire new universes - the so-called 'multiverse'.

HAWKING ON GOD

A Brief History of Time, 1988: If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of
human reason - for then we should know the mind of God.'

The Grand Design, 2010: It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going

Professor Hawking also says that form of complex theoretical physics known as M-theory, a type of string theory, could be the 'holy grail' that will explain everything in the known universe.

Physicists have long sought after a universal theory that unites quantum theory, matter at the sub-atomic level, with gravity which explains how objects interact.

He says: 'M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find.

'The fact that we human beings - who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature - have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a triumph'.

Professor Hawking has been quite outspoken in recent months over a number of issues.

In April documentary series, he argued that it is 'perfectly rational' to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.